Advice on Home Loan Modification

[SMinGA]

I was not current. Owed for November '09 onward when I contacted the retention department in April. Don't qualify for HAMP, mortgage was not over 31% of gross. We started falling behind early '09, income increased due to 2nd job in Nov. '09.

Old payment ~$1176, new payment $979. That includes escrow for insurance & taxes, and the escrow payment was adjusted upward a little to make up for lack of funds in the account. (They did not amortized missed escrow payments, only interest. Had expected the escrow to go temporarily higher at the next assessment, but just got notice that our property taxes are going down so it should even out within the first few months of '11.)

Not sure what they based the new payment on. Perhaps some % of net or gross but that is just a guess. Stepped interest rates, 3.875% for 2 years then 4.375% for 2 years then it will go to 4.75% and stay there. Was 6.95% fixed.

The July 1st payment will be for the new amount. Had to send in an amount equal to the new payment in certified funds when I sent back the notarized docs, it was to pay $120 in fees and the rest was interest.

If they are saying to mail or call in your payment for July 1st, is it the modified amount and if so, how much was your payment reduced? Was it based on the standard for HAMP, even though it's an in-house modification? Also, were you current on your mortgage because BAC would not even talk to me before I was late so.. I missed May's payment and I was thinking of not sending them June's payment either. I'm not sure how the missed payments will be figured in.

[freeatlast98]

I was not current. Owed for November '09 onward when I contacted the retention department in April. Don't qualify for HAMP, mortgage was not over 31% of gross. We started falling behind early '09, income increased due to 2nd job in Nov. '09.

Old payment ~$1176, new payment $979. That includes escrow for insurance & taxes, and the escrow payment was adjusted upward a little to make up for lack of funds in the account. (They did not amortized missed escrow payments, only interest. Had expected the escrow to go temporarily higher at the next assessment, but just got notice that our property taxes are going down so it should even out within the first few months of '11.)

Not sure what they based the new payment on. Perhaps some % of net or gross but that is just a guess. Stepped interest rates, 3.875% for 2 years then 4.375% for 2 years then it will go to 4.75% and stay there. Was 6.95% fixed.

The July 1st payment will be for the new amount. Had to send in an amount equal to the new payment in certified funds when I sent back the notarized docs, it was to pay $120 in fees and the rest was interest.

Thank you so much for all this information. It actually makes me hopeful they'll work with me. I know if they don't modify the payment, I'll never be able to keep my home. My payment now is $2,300 and my income has decrease about 50% in the past year. I will also need to file Chapter 7 and then perhaps my life can get back on track. During the time you were behind, they didn't try and foreclose? Also, it appears the mod is not a trial but permanent. Is that correct? I'm so glad things worked out so well for you. I hope for the same thing.

[SMinGA]

My understanding is that the HAMP mods are the ones with trial payments, not inhouse.

Mine was a bit of an unusual story. We had filed ch. 13 in Dec, made 3 payments (Jan-Feb-Mar) and then dismissed voluntarily in late March. Longer story there, but we went with an atty who turned out to have very little ch. 13 experience and we incurred some major transportation issues. Decided it best to dismiss, work on some things on our own, eventually to refile. Figured while we were doing that, I would see if I could get anywhere with BofA. I contacted them as soon a the BK notation was removed from my account. If we had not filed in Dec., I figure they would have started foreclosure proceedings soon. (And since dismissing, of course they moved our 3 payments to the oldest ones outstanding.)

The end result, we will still file ch. 13 but when we refile we'll be able to do 36 instead of 60. We're under median, but before with less DMI & mortgage arrears needing to be paid, we could not afford enough to resolve in 36. Now no arrears and higher DMI, we can.

Thank you so much for all this information. It actually makes me hopeful they'll work with me. I know if they don't modify the payment, I'll never be able to keep my home. My payment now is $2,300 and my income has decrease about 50% in the past year. I will also need to file Chapter 7 and then perhaps my life can get back on track. During the time you were behind, they didn't try and foreclose? Also, it appears the mod is not a trial but permanent. Is that correct? I'm so glad things worked out so well for you. I hope for the same thing.

[ConfusedinOC]

I just checked my Chase home loan account online and it's official. The loan is now fixed at 4% (it us to stay adjustable), the new payment (decreased by 10 bucks) and the maturity date are shown.

Now I need to deal with my credit cards that I haven't paid since this Feb. I will try and settle something out with them but most likely I will have to go the bankruptcy route. Filing BK won't be all that bad because I will have an affordable fixed rate home loan and two fairly new vehicles.